Prep Football: Eastland-Pearl City grabs NUIC NW crown 26-7

LANARK — Forreston, trailing by a touchdown, needed to score on a long drive in the third quarter to tie the game.

Donny Groezinger knew his teammate, Mike Harrington, had other ideas.

An interception by the Eastland-Pearl City defensive back picked off Forreston quarterback Robert DeVries near the end zone.

The Cardinals wouldn’t score the entire second half, and E-PC clinched its second straight NUIC Northwest championship with a 26-7 win on the road.

“Mike’s been doing great,” Groezinger said. “Every time they tried to run and sneak, he was able to get to the outside.

“He’s on his keys and he’s telling us what to do in practice and is probably the best corner that we have.”

Forreston’s (7-2, 5-2) 20-play drive in the third quarter allowed the team to burn clock and drive down to E-PC’s (9-0, 7-0) 16-yard line. Penalties hurt E-PC, as a defensive holding call and a 12-man on the field call kept the Cardinals drive alive.

But a fumble on an option play, followed by an interception, ended the drive just before the end of the third.

“That play was huge,” E-PC coach Randy Asche said. “But as team, we knew that helped keep them on the field.

“They did some good things, but those penalties hurt us. I think the kids didn’t think we were in situation we couldn’t handle. So I was really impressed with how well our defense played tonight.”

E-PC’s defense stood firm throughout the game, only giving up a score in the first quarter on a DeVries one-yard TD with 1:28 left before the second.

That drive was set up on a fake-punt pass to Breyden Wierzycki on fourth and 9 at the Cardinals own 46.

Beyond that drive, the Wildcats prevented the big play for scores.

E-PC tied the game on a Shawn Larak short TD run and took the lead with a 61-yard TD pass from quarterback Deven Heeren to Groezinger under duress.

Heeren finished a perfect 9-for-9 for 134 yards.

“He did great,” Groezinger said. “He trusts the receivers so well that he’ll put the ball up and let us just go get it.

“Even when he doesn’t have time to set up, he has trust in us. He did great.”